Sixteen Years
by hoenheim-of-light51
Summary: A sort-of request from one of my friends that KILLED ME INSIDE! TTwTT Set during episode 50. Edward Elric's mind still functions despite the hole in his chest, and we get to hear his final thoughts.


**Sixteen Years**

They had assumed he had died instantly, but there were still within him a few brief seconds of life, wherein all the commotion and the pain of what would be his death began to fade into the blackness slowly encroaching his vision.

Rose was screaming a few feet away, watching his blood spreading across the tile floor, spilling from the hole in his chest which, oddly enough, had never hurt at all. Perhaps all the agony he had felt, and was slowly losing, was mental, psychological. It wouldn't have surprised him. Physical anguish was something he'd almost become immune to after so many years of feeling it, but his mind had been hurting him since he was ten years old, tormented constantly by the memories stabbing into his consciousness.

Ten…Had that really been only six years ago? Had his life really been that short? Was he really going to leave this world so soon?

Yes.

He couldn't deny the life slowly ebbing out him, numbing his limbs and stealing his vision.

But despite that, his mind refused to stop, refused to leave him until the very last moment. He wasn't sure whether or not that comforted him.

Rose was crying now, though he couldn't turn his head to see just where she was. He couldn't move anything, for that matter, couldn't take his eyes away from the green-haired bastard standing over him, laughing and grinning like a crazed child who'd finally succeeded in killing the mouse he'd found in the backyard. The bastard was enjoying every one of the alchemist's last few moments in this world, treasuring his passing, proud of himself and satisfied with all that he'd done. He didn't even bother to wipe the alchemist's blood off his skinny arm, allowing it to drip down his wrist and onto the floor.

And to think that bastard was his brother, spawn of his father and an ancient, evil bitch.

Oddly enough, he found he almost felt sorry for Envy. Not because he was abandoned, but because he allowed that fact to overtake him and turn him into the maniac he was today; he'd been unable to cope with the loss of his father, had lacked the mental strength to. Everything Envy had ever done, he thought, was nothing more than an act of self-pity. In that sense, even dead, Edward would always be stronger than the homunculus who killed him. He was too close to death to derive any feeling of triumph or happiness from this fact.

At last, he could feel his mind wavering, his consciousness beginning to leave him for the final time.

It was only now that his life began to flash before his eyes, a visual representation of his sixteen years flying past him to the point of being unintelligible, yet he still found he could recall every single moment. He was reminded of every mistake he'd ever made, of every person he'd ever known, of some thing's he'd assumed he'd forgotten, and of every thought or emotion he'd ever perceived. And all he could see was all that hadn't been done, all he'd planned to do, and it looked as though he'd accomplished nothing. His only true goal and one true success had been finally locating the Philosopher's Stone. He'd never brought back his mother, never sealed enough of the homunculi, never even gotten started on over half of the thing's he'd planned to do with his life once this whole journey was over, for the journey had never ended. Only when Alphonse was returned to normal would their travels finally cease, and that had never happened.

And now, it would never happen.

Alphonse yelled out his name, voice ringing within the iron prison Edward had condemned him to.

As the blurred images in his mind that were his past reached the end of their reel, Edward wished desperately for one last burst of strength, if only to turn and see his little brother one more time, to apologize for his demise, as it came before he could return to Alphonse all that had been stolen, but his pulse had already stopped and the connection between his muscles was gone. There were but mere moments left before his brain stopped, too.

Something warm, the last bit of warmth he felt, slid down his cheek and mingled with the blood soaking into his hair. In those last few instants, there came through his throat all the air that his pierced lungs had retained.

"Alphonse…"

Envy's laughter echoed off the large, golden walls.

Rose's voice pierced his numbing brain.

His brother's smiling face, young and be fleshed, the way he had always yearned to see it again, passed swiftly through his mind.

Then everything went black.


End file.
